Electric impact wrenches

[Audax]

After the fun and games I had removing the rear suspension mounts on the 9-5 yesterday and today I was looking at this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Clarke-CEW1000-Electric-Impact-Wrench/dp/B0039BQRUO does anyone have any experience with this or similar tools? For the money it looks incredibly cheap although I'd need to get a full range of impact sockets to go with it.

[phoenix]

Yes it does look very cheap indeed.

I have a Sealey one that claims 285 lbft and cost me circa £200:

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/p/tools/power-tools/cordless-power-tools/impact-wrenches/?SEACP3002&0&t5_349

But it regularly fails to shift wheel nuts.

Maybe part of that is down to battery performance, I don't know. At least that would be eliminated with a mains model and a 1kW motor is fairly beefy.

Frankly for £50 it's probably worth a punt if you're doing other jobs. Just make sure it's on an RCD at the other end of the extension lead.

[chris aka zaphod]

Keeping tabs on this thread - could be in the market for one.

[Audax]

Of course, I just realised that our parking space (nearest place I can get to the house to get power too!) is 30m from the car... I'll need an extension lead too. That makes it all a bit expensive for this month given I just bought spring compressors and some other necessary tools. I'll have to think if I can justify the purchase later in the week 

[phoenix]

Having done my shocks a few months back I can confirm mine also required the use of a 2ft breaker bar to get them moving then an old, long torque wrench (it has a ratchet) to shift them. They are a fine thread and these do seem to sieze up quite nicely. The impact wrench didn't have, erm... much impact on them!

[Audax]

I took the plunge today and ordered one, bonus from work and pay rise this month made me decide to treat myself (that and how sore my hands are still from the weekend trying to loosen those seized up nuts!). I'll report back over the weekend assuming that the wrench and impact sockets turn up on time.

[Norfolk Jim]

Best see the quack if your nuts are seized!

[Geoff1951]

Depends who's seized them.

[Audax]

I had to go and buy some metal cutting discs for the dremel today, that's to help me with my other stuck nut... I nearly got it off but it got stuck at the last minute and no amount of twisting and turning while holding it with the grips was going to release it.

[Audax]

No further progress with my tight nuts. The big impact wrench turned up yesterday, bejesus it's heavy, around 4KG it says on the label and I can believe it!

Due to the weather I've not attempted to sort the car today although the forecast wasn't helpful as it didn't start raining so I could have had it sorted earlier.

[Audax]

So, managed to get my tight nuts off earlier today with the electric impact wrench (Clarke CEW1000). It was an absolute doddle doing the job using it. The other side took over an hour of cranking bolts and mucking about with only hand tools this time it took an hour of which 50 minutes was spent talking to my neighbour about cars (he used to have a C900 Turbo) and less than 10 minutes of turning spanners.

The short review of the actual wrench is that It's not as good as an air gun and it has only has 2 modes of operation, on and off! so once a stuck bolt is unstuck it's off the car before you get a chance to moderate the speed of the wrench. I found this out by trying it on a couple of wheel nuts before jacking up the car where it impacted a few times and then as soon as they turned they were off, so it would be sensible when using one to make sure that whatever you're removing is jacked up or cable tied etc.

All in I paid £57.99 for the impact wrench off ebay (it came with 4 sockets) and then £14.77 for a set of 13 Sealey AK5613M 1/2" drive impact sockets (10 - 19mm, 21mm, 22mm and 24mm) as I needed a 16mm for the bolts that hold the suspension leg to the car. I also had to get a 30M extension lead that was exactly the right length from ScrewFix which was another £29.99 (but I'll need this for the lawnmower in the summer and for hoovering out the car etc.) but all in I'm really pleased with the purchase and would heartily recommend it if you're likely to have trouble with stuck nuts in the future 

[Hawkwind]

Thanks for the review Audax.

Nice to get an honest opinion from an unbiased source.